The Cisco® Catalyst® 3750 Metro Series Switches are a new line of premier, customer-located switches that bring greater intelligence for Metro Ethernet access, enabling the delivery of more differentiated Metro Ethernet services.

With service provider-friendly hardware and mission-specific software, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series is the first access switch optimized for both the Ethernet-to-the-home (ETTH) triple-play services and Ethernet-to-the-business (ETTB) VPN services. It provides the most complete security solution for Metro Ethernet access that covers subscriber, switch, and network protection. The Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series supports multiple software images to provide a "pay-as-you-grow" deployment model. With service breadth spanning triple-play and Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPN services, reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and operating expenses (OpEx) can be achieved from a single ETTH and ETTB access solution.
The switches feature bidirectional hierarchical quality of service (QoS) and traffic shaping, intelligent 802.1Q tunneling, VLAN translation, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS), and Hierarchical Virtual Private LAN Service (H-VPLS) support and redundant AC or DC power. They are ideal for service providers seeking to deliver profitable business services, such as Layer 2, Layer 3, and MPLS VPNs, in several bandwidths and with different service-level agreements (SLAs). With flexible software options, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series offers providers a cost-effective path for meeting current and future service requirements from enterprises and commercial businesses.

The Cisco 3750 Metro Series includes the following configurations:
Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series with 24 10/100 ports plus two Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP)-based Gigabit Ethernet ports and two SFP-based Enhanced Services (ES) ports (part number ME-C3750-24TE-M); AC (part number PWR-ME3750-AC) or DC (part number PWR-ME3750-DC) power required; integrated redundant power option; IP Base feature license; one rack unit (RU)

The ES ports support enhanced features such as bidirectional Hierarchical QoS and Traffic Shaping, intelligent 802.1Q tunneling, VLAN translation, MPLS, EoMPLS, and H-VPLS. These ports can serve as uplinks to metro aggregation points, including the Cisco Catalyst 4500 and 6500 Series Switches and the Cisco 7600 Series Routers, and provide greater intelligence at the network edge.

For greater service breadth and network flexibility, Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series Switches offer additional software feature licenses that provide a cost-effective "pay-as-you-grow" service upgrade path. With the software feature license options on the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series, service providers are able to maximize the return on investment (ROI) for their Metro Ethernet networks by adding features as their profitability increases and service offerings expand.

• E-LMI enables the service provider to automatically configure the customer-edge and CPE devices to match the subscribed service.

Layer 2 VPN Service

• Standard 802.1Q Tunneling creates a hierarchy of 802.1Q tags. This feature helps service providers use a single VLAN to support customers who have multiple VLANs, while preserving customer VLAN IDs and segregating traffic from different customers within the service provider infrastructure even when they appear to be on the same VLAN.

• Selective QinQ gives service providers more flexibility in segregating customer traffic in the network.

• L2PT allows for transport of the customers' control protocols, thereby allowing for a true virtual-circuit service across service providers' shared infrastructure.

Layer 3 VPN Service

• Multi-VRF CE (VRF-lite) forms virtual packet-forwarding tables by associating one or more Layer 3 interfaces with each VRF, allowing the creation of multiple Layer 3 VPNs on a single Cisco Catalyst 3750 Metro Series Switch. Interfaces in a VRF could be either physical, as in an Ethernet port, or logical, as in a VLAN switch virtual interface (SVI)-requiring the METROIPACCESS Cisco IOS Software feature image.

• IP Multicast support in Multi-VRF CE allows customers to migrate to Multi-VRF CE without affecting application and services that depend on IP Multicast.

• Accelerate Layer 3 reconvergence through the use of Link-State Tracking by taking down associated downstream ports when all the corresponding upstream ports are down. Customer switches that are connected to the downstream ports can then take the appropriate failover action.

• Pseudowire redundancy enables service providers to configure their Multiprotocol Label Switching) MPLS network to detect a failure in the network and reroute Layer 2 service to another endpoint that can continue to provide service.

• Ingress policing is provided based on CoS, VLAN ID, DSCP, and QoS ACLs (IP ACLs or MAC ACLs), which can include source and destination IP address, source and destination MAC address, Layer 4 TCP/UDP information, or any combination of these fields.

• IP Source Guard prevents a malicious user from spoofing or taking over another user's IP address by creating a binding table between client's IP and MAC address, port, and VLAN.

Switch Security

• Control Plane Security prevents DoS attacks on the CPU.

• Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol, Kerberos, and SNMPv3 provide network security by encrypting administrator traffic during Telnet and SNMP sessions. SSH, Kerberos, and the cryptographic version of SNMPv3 require a special cryptographic software image because of U.S. export restrictions.

• Port security secures the access to an access or trunk port based on MAC address. After a specific timeframe, the aging feature removes the MAC address from the switch to allow another device to connect to the same port.

• IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile provides standard support for monitoring, remote failure indication, loopback, and OAM discovery on the link between the customer equipment and service provider network.

• Switching Database Manager templates for Layer 2 and Layer 3 deployment allow the administrator to easily optimize memory allocation to the desired features based on deployment-specific requirements.

• VLAN trunks can be created from any port, using standards-based 802.1Q tagging. Up to 1005 VLANs per switch and up to 128 spanning-tree instances per switch are supported.

• Four thousand VLAN IDs are supported.

• RSPAN allows administrators to remotely monitor ports in a Layer 2 switch network from any other switch in the same network.